Aaliayah Dana Haughton was born on January 16, 1979, up North, in Brooklyn, New York City. She is the younger child of Diane Hankerson and Michael Haughton, a warehouse worker. She has African American, Afro-Jamaican, and Native American heritage. Her name is the feminine form of Ali, meaning "highest, most exalted one, the best." Aaliyah loved her name and was proud of it. When Aaliyah was five years old, her family moved into Detroit, Michigan, where she was raised along with her older brother, Rashad. In Detroit, Aaliyah's father worked in the warehouse business, one of his brother-in-law Barry Hankerson's widening interests. Her mother stayed home and raised her and her brother. Her mother enrolled her in voice lessons at an early age. Eventually, she started performing at weddings, church choir, and charity events. Aaliyah attended a Catholic school, Gesu Elementary, where in first grade she was cast in the stage play Annie which inspired her to become an entertainer.
Aaliyah's mother was a vocalist, and her uncle Hankerson was an entertainment lawyer who had been married to Gladys Knight. As a child, Aaliyah traveled with Knight and worked with an agent in New York City to audition for commercials and television programs, including Family Matters. After failing to land a role on the show she continued her acting through the Gesu Players. In 1989 at age ten she appeared on Star Search, where she performed "My Funny Valentine." Aaliyah chose to begin auditioning. Her mother made the decision to drop her surname. She auditioned for several record labels and at age 11 appeared in concerts alongside Knight. After attending a Gladys Knight concert with music executive Suge Knight, and seeing Aaliyah perform on stage, rapper Tupac Shakur wanted to sign her to a record deal. Aaliyah attended Detroit schools and believed she was well-liked, but she was teased for her short stature. By age 15, however, she came to love her height. Her mother told her to be happy she was small and complimented her. Although some children disliked Aaliyah, she determined, "You always have to deal with people who are jealous, but there were so few it didn't even matter. The majority of kids supported me, which was wonderful." Even in her adult life, she considered herself small. She had "learned to accept and love" herself and added: "the most important thing is to think highly of yourself because if you don't, no one else will." During her audition for acceptance to the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts, Aaliyah sang "Ave Maria" in Latin. Aaliyah held a 4.0 grade-point average when graduating from high school. She reflected: "I wanted to keep that 4.0. Being in the industry, you know, I don't want kids to think, 'I can just sing and forget about school.' I think it's very important to have an education, and even more important to have something to fall back on." She considered a future career teaching music, music history or drama if she did not make a living as a recording artist because, as she reasoned, "when you pick a career it has to be something you love."
Early Success
After Hankerson signed a distribution deal with Jive Records, he signed Aaliyah to his Blackground Records label at the age of 12. Hankerson later introduced her to recording artist and producer R. Kelly, who became Aaliyah's mentor, as well as lead songwriter and producer of her first album, recorded when she was 14. Aaliyah's debut album, Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, was released under her mononym "Aaliyah", by Jive and Blackground Records on May 24, 1994; it debuted at number 24 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 38,000 copies in its first week. It peaked at number 18 on the Billboard 200 and it was certified two times Platinum by the RIAA. To date the album has sold over 3 million copies in the US. In Canada, the album was certified gold by Music Canada for 50,000 copies in shipments. In 2014, Vibe magazine estimated that the album had sold six million copies globally. Upon its release, Age Ain't Nothing But a Number received generally favorable reviews from music critics. Some writers noted that Aaliyah's "silky vocals" and "sultry voice" blended with Kelly's new jack swing helped define R&B in the 1990s. Her sound was also compared to that of female quartet En Vogue. Christopher John Farley of Time magazine called the album a "beautifully restrained work", noting that Aaliyah's "girlish, breathy vocals rode calmly on R. Kelly's rough beats." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic felt that the album had its "share of filler", but described the singles as "slyly seductive." He also wrote that the songs on the album were "frequently better" than that of Kelly's second studio album, 12 Play. The single "At Your Best (You Are Love)" was criticized by Billboard for being out of place on the album and for its length.
Aaliyah's debut single, "Back & Forth", peaked at number 5 on the Hot 100 and topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart for three weeks. Two more singles charted: a cover of the Isley Brothers' "At Your Best (You Are Love)" peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album's title track, "Age Ain't Nothing but a Number", peaked at number 75. Additionally, she released "The Thing I Like" as part of the soundtrack to the 1994 film A Low Down Dirty Shame. In August 1995, Aaliyah was featured on the single remix to Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s song "I Need You Tonight."
There was the USATF Loen Star Grand Prix in College Station, Texas, filled with track and field athletes. Gabby Thomas made headlines by winning the 200m with a world-leading time of 21.70 seconds. Athletes competed at Cushing Stadium at Texas A&M University. Texas A&M is home to many track and field icons and lovers of the sport too. That time is Gabby Thomas's third fastest time of her career. Kayla White of America won 2nd, and Favour Ofili of Nigeria won third. For the 110m hurdles for men, Jamar Marshall won 1st, DeVlon Wilson won 2nd, and Connor Schulman won third (all people being Americans). For the women's 100m hurdles, Demisha Roswell of Jamaica won first, Ackera Nugent of Jamaica won 2nd, and Rayniah Jones of America won third. For the women's 400m hurdles, Kemi Adekoya of Bahrain won first, Ashley Miller of Zimbabwe won 2nd, and Shamier Little of America won 3rd. For the men's 200m race, Makanakaishe Charamba of Zimbabwe won first, Tate Taylor of America won 2nd, and Aaron Brown of Canada won 3rd. For the women's 800m, Shafiqua Maloney of Saint Vincent won 1st, Kelly-Ann Beckford of Jamaica won 2nd, and Victoria Bossong of America won 3rd. For the men's 800m, Navasky Anderson of Jamaica won 1st, Abraham Alvarado of Mexico won 2nd, and Sean Dolan from America won 3rd. For the women's hammer, Camryn Rogers won first, Rachel Richeson won 2nd, and Jie Zhao won 3rd. For the 100m men's rac,e Trayvon Bromell of America won first, Andre de Grasse of Canada won 2nd, nad Oblique Seville of Jamaica won 3rd. For the women's 100m, Sabrina Dockery of Jamaica won 1st, Audrey Leduc of Canada won 2nd, and Jodean Williams of Jamaica won 3rd. There were other athletes who won including high school kids and para athletes too.
There is a controversy involving Senate candidate Graham Platner. He is in the state of Maine. He is facing tons of controversies, like allegations of physical abuse from multiple romantic partners, etc. These partners maintain that Platner acted erratically and used violence against them. Platner admitted to suffering from issues, but he denies any physical abuse against the women who accused him. Also, there has been a Nazi-themed tattoo found on him and offensive resurfaced social media posts. Graham Platner wanted to continue in his campaign. Democrats are split, with some wanting him to continue and others refusing to support him. I do believe in redemption and improving one's life, but redemption should be done on an individual level. There is a difference between redemption involving accidentally stepping on one's foot and continuing a political campaign and allegations of abuse and racist tattoos plus offensive social media posts. Some say that Republicans do the same thing, and GOP followers still support people like Trump, etc. My rebuttal to that view is that we aren't Republicans. We should never use the GOP's low standard of moral principles as an excuse to brush aside serious allegations. These allegations aren't a minor misstep or spilling water on the floor. It involved harming innocent human life and having racist tattoos on one's body. Bernie Sanders supporting Platner is not shocking. We reject sexism, domestic violence, anti-Semitism, and all forms of bigotry, period. We don't expect our political leaders to be perfect, but anyone following righteousness (not doing bigotry or assault) is easy to do. So, I believe that Graham Platner should not be in this race and should be replaced with another Democratic candidate. Some things are more important than politics.
One of the most disgraceful actions of our generation is the 2026 GOP members in Minnesota giving a moment of silence to the cowardly murderer Derek Chauvin. This shows how racist the GOP is. Derek Chauvin is a convicted murderer who was convicted by a jury of his peers. He put his knee on the neck of George Floyd for more than 8 minutes with empathy and compassion to a fellow human being. The other officers were cowardly too by doing nothing, not even telling Chauvin to stop on what he was doing. George Floyd said that he couldn't breathe and never received any immediate medical assistance. The GOP hypocrites who did the moment of silence should be completely voted out of office. This happened on May 30, 2026, and this disgraceful act has been condemned by Democratic and some Republican leaders. This took place during the state GOP convention in Duluth, Minnesota. The liar Delegate Christopher Rocco said that Chauvin was a victim of injustice and wanted a federal pardon. Rocco should be voted out of office. They are hypocrites since they lecture people on morality and truth, but they glorify a murderer. These are the same people who glorify Trump, who is complicit in the war crime of murdering people in the Caribbean without due process of the law or a trial.
There are many parts of plant cells, and many of these components differ greatly from those of animal cells. The cell wall is the tough outer layer. It is made up of mostly cellulose, which protects, supports, and provides shape to the plant cell. The cell membrane or plasma membrane is a semi-permeable barrier that controls the movement of substances (water, nutrients, and waste) in and out of the cell. The nucleus is the control center of the planet cell that has the cell's DNA and ordinated the activities like growth and reproduction. The cytoplasm is a gel like fluid that fills the cell and holds the organelles in place. The chloroplasts are the sites of photosynthesis. They contain chlorophyll, which captures sunlight to convert it into usable energy and sugars. The large central vacuole is a large sac that stores water and nutrients. It helps to maintain turgor pressure so the plant remains upright and firm. The ribosomes are tiny structures responsible for protein synthesis. The ER or endoplasmic reticulum is a network of membranes. The Rought ER is studded with ribosomes to produce and transport proteins while the Smooth ER produces lipids. The Golgi Apparatus acts as the packaging and distribution center, sorting, and modifying proteins for use inside and outside the cell. There are more parts of a plant cell like the amyloplast (or starch grain), raphide crystal, peroxisome, lysosome, plasmodesma, and the nuclear envelope.
The Ecumenical Movement is one of the most unique, deceptive movements in the world. It believes in the view that nearly all denominations that claim to be "Christian" (even Jehovah Witnesses, Unitarians, Mormons, etc.) are all are one in the religion of Christianity. It views doctrinal differences as secondary to unity. There is a large call for unity, but unity must exist in truth and sound doctrine. The Ecumenical movement is a deception, because it has an unscriptural view of doctrine. Doctrine is found dozens of times in the Bible. Acts 2:42 says that the church at Jerusalem was steadfast in the apostles' doctrine. There is only one doctrine that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, he died and rose from the dead three days later, and he sits at the right side of God the Father. The church is required to contend to sound doctrine as found in Jude 1:3: "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." The Apostle Paul promoted Christians to embrace real doctrine found in 1 Timothy 1:3 and 1 Timothy 4:13. Doctrine is very important as it relates to baptism. Many denominations believe in the false doctrine that baptism is a substitute for the blood of Jesus Christ to forgive all sins, but the Bible says that baptism is immersion, an ordinance for only believers in God to follow, and that infants can't be baptized. Many in the Ecumenical movement ignore apostasy and how to deal with it. Jesus Christ predicted that before the time of the end, apostasy will exist as found in Matthew 13:10-11. 24-15, 33. The Apostle Paul called this apostasy embracing fables, lovers of oneself, being cold towards people, disobeying mothers and fathers (who are doing the right thing), and rebellion against righteousness. False doctrines like calling Mary the Queen of Heaven, transubstantiation (or the communion host becoming Jesus, which is blasphemy), purgatory, the intercession of the saints (which is overt necromancy), the world-faith heresy, etc. are commonly embraced by deceived human beings in our generation. The Ecumenical movement is wrong to ignore the call for believers in God to separate from heresies and heretics until they come home to embrace the light of God. True Christian unity is about being in one mind in embracing Jesus Christ, spreading the Gospel (as commanded by Jesus in his Great Commission), and follow the Holy Scriptures. The Ecumenical movement is controlled by major religious groups like the World Council of Churches, the Roman Catholic Church (especially after the Vatican II creation), the Rockefeller Foundation, Mormonism, etc. They are funded by the CFR, the Bilderberg Group, the Skulls and Bones, and numerous establishment organizations. The Ecumenical Movement existed back in the 19th century via cooperative, interdenominational missionary societies like the London Missionary Society, YMCA, and the YWCA. Later, the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference started the modern ecumenical movement to end denominational divisions in Protestants. the World Council of Churches was formed in 1948 to represent Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox Churches. The Vatican II conference from 1962 to 1965 was created by Pope John XXIII to promote interfaith dialogue among Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic Churches. You have the National Council of Churches and more council in the 20th and 21st centuries.
By Timothy
No comments:
Post a Comment